The Tussle Between Tribal and Hindu Gods

Satyanarayan Banchhor is a part time print journalist and the Secretary and spokesperson of one of Odisha’s most vibrant social movements. He is fighting against the submersion of his community’s land and his own home from the Lower Suktel Dam, in Balangir district of Odisha. Satya, as he is known, is committed to protecting this fertile, rich land from the threats of displacement and forcible acquisition by the dam project. Since his graduation days, Satya has been involved with the Lower Suktel Budi Anchal Sangram Parishad movement, and his skills as a video journalist with VV and newspaper journalist…

The indigenous Kondh of Odisha face obstacles in continuing with their age-old worship rituals because they involve animal sacrifice.

In Bolangir district of Odisha, Matkhai is one of the deities of the indigenous Kondh people. On the day of the Matkhai festival, the Kondh people found their way to the shrine barred by police forces. The administration had imposed an edict (under the Indian Penal Code Section 144) preventing the assembly of more than four people. Finally, the administration relented and the Kondhs were allowed to conduct their rituals but with one important omission – they were banned from making animal sacrifices.

The beginning of disruption of the Kondh’s way of worship began with the construction of a Hindu temple in the Mathkai shrine. “Earlier our forefathers used to conduct the rituals of worship. Today that has been taken over by the non-Adivasis”, says Nimai Bhoi, priest of Mathkhai.The Hindus claim that Mathkai represents the Hindu gods Shiva and Durga. The day of the Kondh festival in October happened to coincide with the Hindu festival of Dashami. According to Nimai, the priest of Mathkai, the police said that the Kondhs could sacrifice animals on any other day but were not allowed to do so on this particular day in order to preserve the sanctity of the Hindu rituals. Platoons of police were posted to quell any untoward incident and they kept making announcements that the Adivasis maintain peace and respect the rights of the Hindu worshippers. Ironical, given that the Hindus were disrupting the Kondh worship. The Kondhs traditional weaponry, used in sacrifice and displayed as part of the festival procession were also not allowed on the pretext that it might be seen as a violent gesture. In fact, when Nimai entered the temple to make an offering of the ‘sukha’ (dry food offering as opposed to sacrifices), a police personnel carried his axe behind him.

The Kondhs are recognised as scheduled tribes, part of the 8.6% of the population in India who are indigenous andwhose right to cultural and religious identity is under threat. This is despite constitutional safeguards under Article 25 and 29 that guarantee the freedom to practice any religion and protect the right of minorities to preserve their culture. Further, the Fifth Schedule lays down rules about land belonging to the adivasis. While a lot is written about land grabs in Adivasi (tribal) areas, the threat of cultural appropriation hardly ever makes headlines.

The Kondhs continue to worship Mathkai but without the animal sacrifice they believe is a part essential of the rituals. Although the police had given Nimai the verbal assurance that the Kondhs can perform the sacrifice on days that didn’t coincide with Hindu festivals but the administration has, as usual, gone back on their words. The blinding hypocrisy of banning animal sacrifice in tribal worship while not protesting those sacrificed to Hindu goddesses from Kamakhya to Kolkata must be recognised for what they are: as acts of cultural aggression on a minority community.